Morality and Aesthetic Value in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita

5 years, the amount of time it took author Vladimir Nabokov to put words to paper and create Lolita’s obscure world, having finished the novel in 1953 publication had to wait 2 more years before seeing the light of day. Only after Graham Greene reviewed the book, even calling it ‘one of the three best novels of the year’ did the book start taking off although not without controversy. As the years have passed the story continued to gain attention both positive and negative even if no definitive conclusion has been drawn as to why the shocking story continues to be a favorite. Instead, the book prompts readers to reach a final verdict and decide whether fictional novels have a duty to be moral or if it is more important for the book to have an aesthetic value rather.

To completely understand the literary work, the intentions of author and his past and how he came about writing such a novel should be first interpreted. Born Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, on the 22nd of April in 1899 to an aristocratic family, a knack for writing ran in the family as his father V.D. Nabokov was the writer of many books and reports on politics such as ‘The Provisional Government’. Having left Russia in 1919 Nabokov and his family moved to England where Vladimir attended Trinity College, Cambridge first studying zoology before switching to French and Russian literature. In 1922 the family had settled to Berlin; however, shortly after that Nabokov’s father was assassinated which later affected his writing as accidental assassinations are featured noticeably in his books.

Writing poetry was a prominent part of Nabokov, he published 2 collections in 1916 and 1918 before leaving Russia and continued to write poetry while in England, as well as between 1922 and 1940 when he lived in Germany and France. He explored other branches of art such as drama and motion-picture before finding his personal favorite; prose. At first, his novels only earned him a few hundred dollars which he used to help fund his butterfly hunts. While writing these first 8 novels he earned money by teaching tennis as well as languages such as English and Russian. Nabokov finally gained notice when Lolita was completed. The novel is described to “examine love in the light of its seeming opposite’ which is a subtle allegory of Nabokov.

On his inspiration to write the novel Vladimir wrote in ‘On a Book entitled Lolita’ “As far as I can recall, the initial shiver of inspiration was somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes, who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, predicted the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: the sketch showed the bars of the poor creature’s cage.” While it may not appear so at first the two stories share similarities, someone is pushed to do something without realizing the factors that limit them. Nabokov was said to have also taken inspiration from classical Russian ballet and European fairy tales.

At the time of its release in 1955, the morals and ethics of society were similar to ones we have today in terms of topics such as ones appearing in the novel. Groucho Marx has famously said “I’ll put off reading Lolita for six more years until she turns 18”. The author encourages us, readers, to determine if a story is obliged to stick to ethical standards or if it has the freedom to represent whatever thoughts the writer chooses. However, to come to this conclusion it is needed to be familiar with the novel and understand the writing style used in it.

The story starts with a foreword describing how the story came to be known, the individual lets readers know that our anti-hero Humbert died in 1952 in jail before he was trialed for his crimes and that he wrote a memoir before his death. The memoir begins by telling us about Humbert’s childhood years when he grew up in the Rivera in a luxury hotel owned by his father. During his youth, Humbert falls in love with Annabel a young girl on vacation at the hotel. The frustrating stalled sexual urges went on to create serious problems for Humbert later on in his life. The story goes on, as Humbert continues to become older he is educated in England and France and marries a woman named Valeria who later leaves him for someone else. Upon mustering up some money due to an inheritance our main character moves to the States where he is hospitalized for mental problems. After his release, Humbert meets Charlotte Haze and her daughter Lolita and promptly moves in with them.

Humbert tolerates Charlotte and instead focuses his attention on Lolita, though soon after the move Charlotte decides to send Lolita to camp because of her wild behavior. Humbert is then met with a dilemma; should he stay with Charlotte to be around Lolita or will he leave? He ultimately decides to marry Charlotte although shortly after Charlotte finds Humbert’s diary detailing his hatred for her and his immoral love of her daughter. Upon her frenzy she is hit by a car and a panicked Humbert rushes off. He decides to go to the camp to pick up Lolita and take her to a hotel where the two proceed to spend the night together. During his reflection of the events, Humbert writes that it was Lolita who initiated their activities.

The pair then spent a year taking a road trip around the US. As they become more acquainted with each other Lolita begins to act up, eventually they move to Beardsley where Humbert starts as a teacher and Lolita attends school. As they settle in Lolita starts becoming interested in other people and joins a school play. Humbert, hurt by the decreasing amount of attention he receives, lets Lolita plan a trip but during the excursion she falls ill and is taken to a hospital. Lolita leaves with someone else and Humbert tries for years to search for her with no luck, years later Lolita sends him a letter and he finally finds her. When the two finally reunite Humbert begs Lolita to return yet by now she is pregnant, once she receives money she can move away with her husband. Humbert decides to track down the man that Lolita left with years ago and murders him, on his flight away from the scene he is caught and arrested.

An interesting thought to consider is why Nabokov decided to write a foreword with a character who is irrelevant to the actual story. Why was John Ray Jr. selected to be the one to inform us of what happened to Humbert? Ray mentions that Humbert’s lawyer was the one to contact him and ask him to read the memoir that our anti-hero wrote, there was also mentioning of a possible publishing of said memoir. Ray’s job was to edit the autobiography so that the characters remain anonymous and besides this, he does mention that little changes are made and the work is completely in Humbert’s original words, this is clearly stated in the foreword as “My task proved simpler than either of us anticipated this remarkable memoir is presented intact.” Ray’s personal opinion and his insight which are all written in the foreword provide as a sort of abstract or preparation for the readers so that they can, later on, form their own opinion of the work. The foreword also provides information that helps readers understand the ending of the story; however, readers still only realize this after reading the novel until the end. Though the petite introduction that Ray provides is essential to the story and, without it, the readers would feel like the book ends too abruptly.

Upon reading the novel readers are met with distressing scenes and unthinkable thoughts that makes us wonder how the author could have possibly written off such motives. Nonetheless, the story portrays these events in such a manner that just for a second the readers are almost mesmerized before the wave of disgust hit them. This is due to the fact that Nabokov has mastered his art of writing in prose, John Updike has said in the past that “Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically.” With his focus placed on the style of his writing, he can make anything sound beautiful and Lolita perfectly captures this phenomenon. Readers are instantly charmed by his talent for shaping words so only once they have reflect on what they have just read do they realize how heart-breaking the plot is.

This subtle manipulation deceives readers and leads them to believe that what they have just read is not quite as terrible, shaping their view and opinion of the book. Perhaps Nabokov wanted to prove that even the most immoral of characters can be shown sympathy if portrayed in such unusual ways. So does the author’s writing style incite the readers to sympathize with the unethical ways of Humbert? 

The language used to describe the events of the novel leads the readers to believe that what happened between Humbert and Lolita was not something criminal or wrong but their actions were in fact just that. Humbert wrote that what took place was “A greater endeavor” despite continuing to try and defend his actions multiple times by mentioning that he is not a “brutal scoundrel” and that he “crept on the patrimonies of poets not crime’s prowling ground”. As we read Humbert’s attempt to redeem and verify his actions time and time again we are lead to feel almost sorry and pitiful for him. This afterward is then met with judgment, how are readers supposed to feel after reading the novel? The author wants us to think that Humbert was not a monster, on the other hand, our personal ethical standards clearly dictate otherwise.

According to society and to the moral code of many, if not most individuals initiating a relationship of a romantic or of a sexual nature with a child is not acceptable. This is due to the fact that children are easily impressionable and are not fully developed therefore cannot make decisions involving such topics. This is a base on which we readers can agree on the ideas that the author introduces in the story are perceived as wrong, because they are wrong. The frustration begins when these two views merge and we are left with a feeling of confusion as to how we should feel. Nabokov has managed to cause such confusion simply with his style of writing, that is how powerful his control of words are.

It should be asked, does a fictional novel have a duty to be ethical? What limits are set in place for novels? If an author decides to write off such events then is he free to do so? According to the freedom right possessed by every human everyone has a right to have opinions and expressions including the freedom to communicate information and ideas through any given media. The limitations to this right is that one cannot produce media that causes crime, violence or panic. If the reader understands these rights he can clearly see that Nabokov has simply decided to use his freedom of expression since people are not obliged to read the novel. The author wanted to create something allegorical, something beautiful yet hideous are the same time and thus, Lolita was born.

Fictional stories are said to be meant for entertainment, enjoyment, teaching lessons and bring aesthetic pleasure as they are read. They do not tell true tales, nonetheless they do sometimes have real elements implemented within them. The novel was meant to be of aesthetic value, it was written in the way it is because the author aimed to challenge boundaries and open our minds to how few rules literature truly has. Nabokov wanted to prove that fictional novels owe readers nothing, not morals, not ethics, not any take-home messages and he did this in 336 pages of poetic prose.

Morality, fate and free will; each theme can be found in Lolita upon reading the story. Morality is the value system someone has which helps them differentiate right from wrong and good from bad. The morals of the characters in Lolita differ quite significantly from societal norms, both Humbert and Lolita appear to have issues with deciding whether their actions are wrong or not. While Humbert does have moments of reflection where his subconscious begins to push him in the right direction he promptly shakes off these thoughts and continues to justify his deeds. Fate is believed to be the progression of events that occur outside of our control, in this case fate had made our anti-hero Humbert lust after young girls. Regarded as a pedophilia disorder, a psychiatric illness where patients experience desires towards prepubescence children.

Free will is the ability to form decisions without being limited by anyone, if we were to take the plot of our story changing just one detail Lolita’s age would the story still be what it is now? If we changed Lolita’s age to 18, 17 or even 16 what would happen to our novel? While still a significant gap in age the alteration would make Humbert appear not as a criminal simply as a perverted man preying on young adults. Free will also applies to Lolita, she is still free to decide what she consents to but if we change back to her original age this freedom is taken away. The 3 themes; morality, fate and free will push and pull each other throughout the story. When characters want to decide on a matter at hand free will dictates that they are free to do as they please, at the same time morality jumps in and says that indeed they are not free because they must act according to rules and laws and lastly fate saves the day by letting everyone believe that events that occurred were merely due to fate. This circle carries on throughout the book and neither one of the 3 ever end up as a winner because the themes continue to connect to each other.

After reading the novel the reader expects to receive a take-home message, while the message is not quite as obvious with some careful interpretation we can conclude that Lolita teaches readers a few different things. First, the most apparent one is to parents, teachers, and educators to work on providing a safer environment for children to grow up in so that such tragedies do not occur to other individuals. Second, that beautiful language can indeed make ugly actions seem not quite as awful at first glance, granting all this, after some time actions always are stronger than words. And lastly that even the worst of people have subconsciouses that will always come out in the end, in the novel Humbert eventually realizes the extent of his violation when he says “a North American girl child named Dolores Haze had been deprived of her childhood by a maniac...I see nothing for the treatment of my misery…” This shows that even Humbert takes note of the tragedy that he caused.

How does reading Lolita make the readers feel, what sort of emotions are present? During the reading of the novel, the reader is first met with the flow and language the writer uses and begins to float into the story per contra once the reader begins to uncover what the story is about they feel disgusted and judge the characters according to their personal ethical viewpoint. As the story progresses each reader decides for themselves whether they feel as though the book’s message and the topics are too perverse for their taste or if they grew to enjoy the obscure novel. The controversy surrounding the literary piece is precisely due to everyone forming a very different opinion of the book.

Throughout history readers of the book have placed focus on the actions of Humbert and what he had done, and what decisions he made it was rarely brought up what Lolita did and why she acted the way that she did. Although she cannot be blamed for her actions it is still interesting to theorize why she went along with what Humbert was doing and why she did not do more to resist. A psychological explanation that I think explains her actions could be that she had fallen into a male hierarchy to an extent that her subordination turns into a form of attraction as a coping mechanism. This would lead Humbert oblivious to the extent of his violation and therefore with the thought that he has a green light to go ahead and do as he pleases. What Lolita might be experiencing is a form of Stockholm syndrome, a condition in which a victim develops sympathy for their abductor or abuser. The disorder’s symptoms perfectly align with what had happened to Lolita and what she experienced. This offers an explanation of Lolita’s actions and answers our question of why she would agree to participate in the events of the story.

Upon reading the book readers are instantly won over by Nabokov’s talent for playing with words and while the events of the story were shocking and disturbing, the way that they are written about makes the story impossible to put down. If the story was to be re-worked and written as a descriptive novel without Nabokov’s poetics then the story would have never seen the light of day. Dark humor, crime and passion can commonly be found in books read by adults around the world; however, where a line is drawn is around novels such as Lolita. The works that edge around this line are either banned, unsuccessful or gain great fame. Lolita’s writing style is what gave it its potential and what made it famous.

After analysis of the story’s plot and characters, it can be conclusded that Vladimir Nabokov has the ability to convince readers that his novel can be beautiful and his true genius writing style supports this completely. So much so that readers are almost ready to sympathize with the immoral actions and thoughts of Humbert before they are pulled back to reality by their morals. As to how Nabokov managed to capture such events in immense detail, it will always remain a mystery although as he wrote, himself, in Lolita “you can always count on murderer for a fancy prose style”. As well as that another quote that could perpetrate interesting discussions could be that “words without experiences are meaningless”.

Seeing as the novel continues to be popular with readers till present day it is safe to say that I am not alone with these thoughts, and while the story’s content is dark the overall experience of the novel is incomparable to anything I have ever previously read. Finally, a quote that summarizes the entirety of the book is that “offensive is frequently but a synonym for unusual”.